Innovations that advance a sustainable economy are not only difficult in their technical realisation, but also require financial support. In order to bring them to the market, oftentimes large investments become necessary. The aim of the new Green Finance Cluster in Frankfurt, which was opened recently, will be to connect innovations and funding possibilities. In the middle of November the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in Hessen, Tarek Al-Wazir said: “A focus on sustainability is indispensable for the financial sector.

Mussels produce and use one of the strongest biobased adhesives known to date, because they live in the tidal and shelf areas of the oceans and must therefore withstand strong currents and salt water. Exactly such a strong and biobased super glue would also be very useful in regenerative medicine: biocompatible adhesives could be used to treat superficial wounds, and could replace plates and screws, which are commonly used to treat bone fractures.

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to education and competition, the advancement of synthetic biology, and the development of an open community and collaboration.

Forests are a major resource for raw materials but also as a local recreational area. Trees remove carbon from the air and their roots help prevent soil erosion.

Many animals are herbivores. However, the plant cell wall contains cellulose and pectin – both of which are very difficult to digest and require specific enzymes for their break down. Throughout evolution many symbioses between microbes and herbivores have emerged in order to derive the most use out of their vegetable nourishment. The thistle tortoise beetles are an extraordinary example for such a symbiosis.

Wheat is one of the most important cereal species worldwide and its products like bread or pasta are common staples of food. Researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and international colleagues have decoded the complex genome sequence of goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii), an ancestor of common wheat.

Microbes often live in complex biosystems. Their co-habitation is regulated by a number of chemical signals. Researchers from Jena now identified the mechanism that causes Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, roughly ten micrometer in size, to lose their flagella within minutes of coming close to Pseudomonas protegens bacteria, which are merely two micrometers in size.

Climate change and global warming causes more than rising sea levels. It also causes an increasing acidification of the oceans. This, however, affects especially those sea creatures with a calcareous shell – including mussels, which live in tidal regions of the coastal zones.

Biorefineries turn biomass into useful chemicals or raw material that can be processed into bio-based products. But where are they located? And what type of biomass are they using? To answer these questions the Cologne-based nova-Institute conducted a comprehensive survey of all European biorefineries over the summer of 2017.

The western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) is a devastating pest of maize plants, which has spread throughout Europe. This year’s pest monitoring in Germany revealed that the number of beetles caught in traps has again multiplied in comparison to the previous year. Several attempts to target this crop pest biologically by applying entomopathogenic nematodes have failed.